Yearly Archive:2016

Huxlow’s sports teams are looking sharp in their brand new team kits, thanks to local businesses from around Northamptonshire.

Seven local businesses have sponsored a team each, so the boys and girls football teams all have a stunning new kit for matches. R.F. Blounts have sponsored the Year 8 boys team.

The Huxlow football teams have a strong reputation for success in the district and county, regularly participating in league and cup games. “I love the new yellow kit. It’s different from our usual kit, we’re going to play like legends in it!” said J Gaggini

The businesses from our local community who have supported Huxlow’s sporting stars are:

Yr 7 Boys – sponsored by Cloverdale Catering

Yr 7 girls – sponsored by Paradigm Interiors

Yr 8 boys – sponsored by R F Blount & Sons

Yr 9 Boys – sponsored by Paradigm Interiors

Yr 10 boys – sponsored by Wykes Engineering

Yr 11 boys – sponsored by SCL Electrical

Yrs 10 & 11 Girls – sponsored by Simplicity Blinds

“The Sponsors were thrilled with their kits and during the Sponsor morning said how great the students were and how smart they looked in their new strips” said Mrs C Cox, PA to the Headteacher, who co-ordinated the event.

An appeal to refurbish Kettering General Hospital’s staff recreation hall has been supported by a local company.

RF Blount Plumbing Heating and Electrical, of Kettering, has fitted a new heating and cooling system in the Recreation Hall at a discounted rate saving the hospital’s Revive the Rec Hall Appeal several thousand pounds.

The Revive the Rec Hall Appeal aims to raise £145,000 to renovate the hall – which is more than 50 years old – for the benefit of staff and the local community.

It is being organised by a team of volunteers from both the hospital and its supporters in the local community.

RF Blount’s Managing Director, Nick Blount, said: “I was approached by one of the Revive the Rec Hall Appeal’s organisers, Shirley Newman, who I went to school with.

“When I saw what the appeal was trying to do I very much supported it. I have personally been involved in using the Rec Hall since the 1970s and was fully aware it needed a lot of work to bring it up to date.

“This is our 70th year as a business in Kettering and I thought it would be appropriate for us to do our bit to help the Appeal and improve this facility for the benefit of both the local community and the staff at Kettering General Hospital.”

The work took a couple of weeks and was timed to coincide with various other works which included a new ceiling being put in place by local firm Cubex Contracts. It enables the Hall@KGH (the new name for the Recreation Hall) to have warm heating during the Winter months and air conditioning during the summer.

One of the appeal organisers, and KGH staff member, Fiona Barber, said: “This was a fantastic gesture of support by Nick Blount and his team.

“It has saved us several thousand pounds and Nick didn’t even ask to be paid until we were able to afford it – which enabled us to get a lot of work all done at the same time.

“It has helped us to transform the Rec Hall by providing heating and cooling which makes it a much more comfortable and attractive place to have meetings of all kinds.

“What we had before – several old electrical heating bars attached the ceiling – really didn’t do much to take away the chill during the Winter and were expensive to run.

“This has really helped us to bring the Hall@KGH up to 21st Century standards. It means we are now using the hall virtually every day in one way or another and I expect its popularity to continue to increase.”

We would like to thank everybody involved in the 2016 running of the Nene Valley Dragonboat Race, held by the Rotary Club raising funds for Lakelands Daycare and Cransley Hospice.

The R.F. Blount team, ‘The Mutineers’, fought hard all day putting in some seriously fast times. The time posted in the semi-final was actually faster than any times set in the final which would have given them the win. The team worked really well together, and with a few small improvements are confident they can take the top spot next year, after coming close the past 3 years.

The main reason of course was to raise money for Cransley Hospice and Lakelands Daycare. The entire staff have been working hard to collect sponsorship’s, with a final tally being counted as we speak. The event has raised over £100,000 since the start of the event six years ago, and we hope to add as much as we can to the tally.

A team of 16 from Kettering’s RF Blount Plumbing walked the “Three Peaks Challenge” on March 12 in Yorkshire to raise money for Cransley Hospice. Team member Olli Turner said: “The route itself saw us covering 24.5 miles in one day conquering three Yorkshire peaks in the process. “The first peak being Pen-Y-Ghent (694m/2,277ft), on to Whernside (736m/2,415ft), then Ingleborough (723m/2,372ft).